Al-Darb Diya is Arabic, meaning "The Shining Avenue". DDMA is my news blog on blogspot. It started on the second of January 2009. This blog contains certain news articles that I chose to put on here. Some of my own individual news articles might appear here. Hostile, negative and spam comments would be rejected. Most of the posts are NOT written by me, and some have the link to where I got them from originally. I welcome people to ask me to post any other news they don't find on DDMA.

DDMA Headline Animator

Saturday, April 1, 2017

HOMS - Hundreds of rebels and civilians left the last opposition-held district of Homs on Saturday under a controversial Russian-supervised deal to bring Syria's third city under full government control.

The evacuation of Waer, a northwestern district of the city that has been under siege by the army for years, is the latest in a series of "reconciliation" deals struck by the government that the rebels say amount to starving them out.

It comes ahead of a new round of UN-brokered talks that open in Geneva on Thursday in an attempt to end the conflict that has killed more than 320,000 people and driven millions from their homes.

Thousands are expected to leave Waer in the coming weeks in the final phase of the evacuation agreement, which had stalled in recent months.

An AFP correspondent saw a first wave of three green buses carrying civilians including children as well s dozens of fighters, their rifles slung over their shoulders.

Throughout the day, people lined up to load their luggage onto the buses under the watchful eye of Russian military police.

"Russia is a guarantor of the Waer agreement's implementation and will monitor its execution," said the Russian colonel overseeing the operation.

"Russian forces came to Syria for this -- to help their friends and allow people to live safely in this country again."

Moscow is a decades-old ally of the Damascus regime, and in September 2015 launched an air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

That backing has helped government forces recapture swathes of territory, including the whole of second city Aleppo as well as the famed desert city of Palmyra.

- 12,000 expected to leave -

Three waves of rebels and their families have already left Waer under an agreement first reached in December 2015, but evacuations have since stalled.

In a new deal reached last week, government and rebel representatives agreed that up to 100 Russian troops would deploy inside Waer to oversee the final phase of evacuations.

Between 400 and 500 people are expected to leave on Saturday, Homs governor Talal Barazi said.

"Syrian police, Russian military police and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent will protect the convoys and accompany them from Homs onto Aleppo province," Barazi said.

Syrian state television reported about a dozen buses had left so far.

Under the agreement, evacuees will be bused to opposition-held parts of Homs province, the rebel-held town of Jarabulus on the Syrian-Turkish border or the northwestern province of Idlib.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that a total of 12,000 people, 2,500 of them rebels, will leave under the deal.

Over the past month, government forces have stepped up their bombardment of the district, killing dozens of people, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

No aid has reached Waer in at least four months. A UN convoy attempted to reach the district in February but it was seized by gunmen who diverted the assistance to a government-held area.

The government has agreed "reconciliation" deals for several rebel-held areas, and touts such agreements that grant safe passage to surrendering fighters as key to ending six years of war.

But rebels say they are forced into such deals by siege and bombardment, and the UN has sharply criticized them.

The most notorious of the agreements was the December evacuation of the rebel-held east Aleppo after months of government siege.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria earlier this month said the deal "amounts to the war crime of forced displacement of the civilian population" because it had left civilians with "no option to remain."

BEIRUT (AP) — Twin blasts Saturday near holy shrines frequented by Shiites in the Syrian capital Damascus killed at least 40 people and wounded over a hundred, most of them Iraqis, according to Syrian and Iraqi officials.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. Islamic State militants have carried out similar attacks before against Shiite shrines in the Syrian capital and elsewhere. Extremist Sunni groups, such as IS, view Shiites as apostates and consider shrines a form of idolatry.

Syrian State TV aired footage from the scene showing blood-soaked streets and several damaged buses in a parking lot, apparently where the explosions went off near Bab al-Saghir cemetery. The cemetery is one of Damascus' most ancient and is where several prominent religious figures are buried.

Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar visited the wounded in local hospitals. He said 40 were killed and 120 were wounded. He said the attacks targeted civilians, including Arab visitors, who were touring area's shrines.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that at least 40 Iraqis were killed and 120 wounded. Ministry spokesman Ahmed Jamal said buses carrying Iraqi pilgrims to the shrines were targeted. He said a crisis response team has been formed to expedite the identification and transport of the killed and wounded.

"The ministry calls on the international community to condemn this heinous terrorist crime that targeted civilian Iraqi visitors to the holy shrines. It also urges a firm and decisive stand against the takfiri groups responsible for them," Jamal said in a statement. Takfiri is an Arabic derogatory term referring to extremist Sunni Muslims — such as members of the Islamic State group — who accuse other Muslims of being infidels.

Iraqi, Iranian and other Asian Shiites often visit shrines in Syria. U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Ali al-Za'tari condemned the attacks, saying "targeting civilians is a terrorist act, condemned and rejected by anyone who has a conscience in this world."

Lebanon's Hezbollah group also condemned the attacks, saying they stem from a "Takfiri ideology that uses religion as a cover to stab religion and believers everywhere." There were conflicting reports about what caused the explosions. State news agency SANA said the blasts were caused by bombs placed near the cemetery and that at least 33 were killed and more than a hundred wounded.

Lebanon's Al-Manar TV quoted Syrian officials saying twin suicide attacks killed 40. The military media arm of Hezbollah, Lebanon's militant group close to Damascus, said two suicide bombers blew themselves up 15 minutes apart near the shrines, leading to the large number of casualties. Arab TV Al-Mayadeen, airing the conflicting reports, also said at least 40 were killed. The area was sealed after the explosions.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group with activists on the ground, said at least 46 were killed in the twin explosions. The group said the first blast came after a suicide bomber blew himself up among the pilgrims near the shrines. It was not clear what caused the second explosion, the group said, adding that the death toll is likely higher because dozens were wounded.

Mohammed Haytham al-Hosseini, head of the National Hospital in Damascus, told pro-government Sama TV that 41 killed arrived to his facility. He said at least three wounded were in critical condition. A similar attack in Damascus last year targeted one of the most revered Shiite shrines and was claimed by Islamic State militants.

Bab al-Saghir is one of the seven gates of the old city of Damascus and houses a cemetery where a number of early Islam religious figures, including family members of Prophet Muhammad and figures revered by Shiites, are buried.

Also Saturday, Syria's President Bashar Assad said in an interview that his military's priority is to reach the Islamic State group's de-facto capital of Raqqa — toward which U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces are also advancing.

The interview with Hong-Kong based Phoenix TV was aired Saturday and shared by the Syrian Presidency website. Assad said another IS stronghold, Deir el-Zour, may be targeted in parallel. Syria's battlefields have become increasingly crowded. U.S-led coalition forces in collaboration with Syrian Kurdish fighters as well as Turkish troops and Syrian allies and Syrian government troops, backed by Russia and Iran, are all converging to clear northern Syria of the remnants of Islamic State militants. In some incidents, the teeming battlefield has caused friction between rival groups, as well as several civilian casualties.

Assad said that "in theory" he shares the same priority with U.S. President Donald Trump of fighting terrorism but that they have had no formal contact yet. He said Russia, a major ally, hopes it can urge the U.S. and Turkey to cooperate with Moscow and Damascus in the fight against terrorism in Syria. Assad's government views all armed opposition as terrorist groups.

Assad said all foreign troops on Syrian soil without invitation or consultation with the Syrian government are considered "invaders." Meanwhile, Syria's armed opposition groups called for postponing a meeting planned and sponsored by Russia and Turkey, scheduled to take place in the Kazakh capital Astana next week. In a statement, the rebel groups said violations of a Russia-backed cease-fire have persisted, and called for the meeting to be rescheduled for after March 20, when a limited cease-fire expires.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's military announced on Thursday it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group as the militants' defenses crumbled and IS fighters fled in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes.

The development marks the third time that the town — famed for its priceless Roman ruins and archaeological treasures IS had sought to destroy — has changed hands in one year. It was also the second blow for the Islamic State group in Syria in a week, after Turkish backed opposition fighters seized the Syrian town of al-Bab from the militants on Feb. 23, following a grueling three month battle. In neighboring Iraq, the Sunni extremist group is fighting for survival in its last urban bastion in the western part of the city of Mosul.

For the Syrian government, the news was a welcome development against the backdrop of peace talks underway with the opposition in Switzerland. "You are all invited to visit the historic city of Palmyra and witness its beauty, now that it has been liberated," the Damascus envoy to the U.N.-mediated talks, Bashar al-Ja'afari, told reporters in Geneva.

"Of course, counterterrorism operations will continue until the last inch of our territory is liberated from the hands of these foreign terrorist organizations, which are wreaking havoc in our country," he added.

The Damascus military statement said troops gained full control of the desert town in central Syria following a series of military operations carried out with the help of Russian air cover and in cooperation with "allied and friendly troops" — government shorthand for members of Lebanese militant Hezbollah group who are fighting along Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

IS defenses around Palmyra had begun to erode on Sunday, with government troops reaching the town's outskirts on Tuesday. The state SANA news agency reported earlier that government troops had entered the town's archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around mid-day, then the town itself, as IS militants fled the area.

This is the Syrian government's second campaign to retake Palmyra. It seized the town from Islamic State militants last March only to lose it again 10 months later. Before the civil war gripped Syria in 2011, Palmyra was a top tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his defense minister that Syrian troops had gained control of Palmyra, with support from Russian warplanes.

The Syrian government's push has relied on ground support from Hezbollah and Russian air cover, according to Hezbollah's media outlets. Archeologists have decried what they say is extensive damage to its ruins.

Drone footage released by Russia's Defense Ministry earlier this month showed new damage to the facade of Palmyra's Roman-era theater and the adjoining Tetrapylon — a set of four monuments with four columns each at the center of the colonnaded road leading to the theater.

A 2014 report by a U.N. research agency disclosed satellite evidence of looting while the ruins were under Syrian military control. Opposition factions have also admitted to looting the antiquities for funds.

IS militants have twice used the town's Roman theater as a stage for mass killings, most recently in January, when they shot and beheaded a number of captives they said had tried to escape their December advance. Other IS killings were said to have taken place in the courtyard of the Palmyra museum and in a former Russian base in the town.

The developments in Palmyra came against the backdrop of the talks in Geneva, which have been without any tangible breakthroughs so far. Diplomats and negotiators have set their sights on modest achievements in the latest round, after a week of discussions centering on setting an agenda for future talks.

On Thursday, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura held another round of meetings with both the government delegation and opposition groups. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters Wednesday that "the parties have agreed to ... discuss all issues in a parallel way, on several tracks."

After a Damascus request, the issue of terrorism is also on the table, he had said. Russia is a key sponsor of Assad's government. A top Syrian opposition negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, said the talks would likely culminate in a closing ceremony on Friday and the parties may be back in Geneva for further discussions in a few weeks.

Setting the agenda and strategy to guide discussions has proven difficult as the main conflicting parties dig in their heels over form and semantics. In Turkey, the country's foreign minister said that with the completion of an operation to retake the IS-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish troops will head to the Syrian town of Manbij next, to oust U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara views as terrorists and a threat to Turkey.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkey would not shy away from attacking the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces, which captured Manbij last year after weeks of deadly fighting with IS.

He renewed calls for the new U.S. administration not to support the Kurdish forces. Cavusoglu stressed that an operation to take Manbij had not started yet, but acknowledged that skirmishes between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurdish fighters may have occurred.

That front line in northern Syria was further complicated by a concurrent announcement by the Syrian Kurdish side on Thursday that they had agreed with Russia to withdraw from some of the territory between al-Bab and Manbij, to make room for a buffer.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said that under the deal, they will withdraw from a front line with rival Turkish-backed forces near the Euphrates River. This will allow Syrian government forces to create a buffer between them.

However, Cavusoglu denied any such agreement was reached. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. The Turkish and Syrian authorities have long regarded each other with thinly-veiled hostility.

DAMASCUS - Worried over Turkish advances in Syria's north, the Damascus regime has formed an alliance of convenience with the country's Kurds to prevent their common enemy from gaining ground.

President Bashar al-Assad's government has repeatedly criticized Turkey's operation in Syria, which saw Ankara in late August send troops across the border where they are working with local rebels.

Turkey's invasion has also been fiercely opposed by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by Kurdish fighters.

"For the government, just as for the Syrian Kurds, the enemy is (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan. They want to counter his project of invading the border territory," said Waddah Abed Rabbo, editor-in-chief of Syria's Al-Watan daily.

"It's completely normal that the forces present on the ground would ally with each other to block any Turkish advance in Syrian territory. Now, Turkish forces are totally encircled," said Abed Rabbo, whose paper is close to the government.

With help from Turkish air strikes, artillery, and soldiers, Syrian rebels last week overran the town of Al-Bab, the Islamic State group's last bastion in the northern province of Aleppo.

Syrian troops had advanced to the southern edges of the town, but had been ordered by their ally Russia not to enter Al-Bab after Moscow struck a deal with Ankara.

Instead, regime fighters headed east, sweeping across previously IS-held villages to link up with the SDF south of its stronghold in Manbij.

- 'Surrounded on all sides' -

In just 15 days, Assad's army seized nearly two dozen villages, including Taduf south of Al-Bab, gaining approximately 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) of territory in Aleppo province.

The advance brought Syrian troops to territory just southwest of Manbij and adjacent to SDF forces there, said US-based Middle East expert Fabrice Balanche.

By sealing off that territory, Balanche added, the regime has stemmed Turkish ambitions of heading further east.

"The road to Raqa via Al-Bab is now cut for the Turks. They also can't attack Manbij from the south," Balanche added.

Erdogan has insisted that Ankara wants to work with its allies to capture Raqa, the de facto Syrian capital of IS's so-called "caliphate", without the SDF.

Turkey considers the SDF's biggest component -- the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) -- as "terrorists" because of their links to an outlawed Kurdish militia in southeast Turkey.

But the SDF has a head start. Since November, it has been battling to encircle Raqa with the help of US-led coalition air strikes and is much closer to the city than the Turkish-backed fighters.

The regime's recent advance has boxed Turkey in, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

"They're surrounded on all sides. The Kurds are to the east, southeast, and west. The regime is south," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"They don't have a single road to Raqa except via territory controlled by the Kurds or the Syrian army," Abdel Rahman said.

- 'Regime has not changed' -

"If they really want to go, they only have two options: opening up a front with the army or the Kurds, or striking a deal with them."

Such a deal would require the mediation of either Russia -- who has long backed the Syrian regime and has recently developed closer cooperation with Turkey on Syria -- or the United States, an ally to Ankara and SDF backer.

"The risk of confrontation is there. But if the Turkish army heads towards Raqa, it will only be after a deal with the United States," said Sinan Ulgan, who heads the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy (EDAM) in Istanbul.

While the SDF and Syria's regime have a shared interest in countering Ankara's influence, the alliance is not foolproof.

Regime forces and Kurdish fighters have clashed several times across the northeastern province of Hasakeh, and government officials frequently criticize a Kurdish announcement last year of a "federal system" to run affairs in northern Syria.

"The regime is against Kurdish independence, but it doesn't have the means to retake Kurdish territory," Balanche said.

A high-level security source in Damascus insisted that "Syria does not recognize the SDF because the constitution stipulates that the only military presence in Syria is the Syrian army."

"But really, there are several legitimate and illegitimate organisations involved in the Syrian conflict," the source conceded.

Leading SDF adviser Nasser al-Hajj Mansour denied that his group had struck a deal with the regime, but acknowledged that the current situation is an incentive for cooperation over confrontation.

"The regime has not changed. When it can, it will attack us. But today, local and international dynamics will not allow it to do so," he said.

"When the search and combing operations are over, we will be able to say that Al-Bab has been completely cleared of Daesh (IS) elements," he said, quoted by state-run Anadolu Agency.

Isik reaffirmed that Turkey was now ready to join any operation by international coalition forces to take the Syrian city of Raqa, the extremist group's de-facto capital.

Anadolu had earlier reported that rebels had surrounded the town to "break" IS's will but had held off on storming the center "with the aim of preventing civilian casualties".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, said IS fighters were still present in parts of the town and that rebels were in control of less than half of it.

Rebels launched an offensive to capture Al-Bab last year with the support of Turkish ground troops, artillery and air strikes.

Al-Bab was IS's last remaining stronghold in Aleppo province, after a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters seized the town of Manbij in August.

The jihadist group still controls a scattering of smaller villages and towns in the province.

- 'Tall task' ahead -

Field commanders from two other rebel factions in the town also claimed the capture of Al-Bab.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), we captured the city center, which was IS's security zone... The jihadists collapsed, and this morning around 6 am (0400 GMT) we completed the operation," said Saif Abu Bakr, who heads the Al-Hamza rebel group.

Abu Jaafar, another rebel field commander, said he expected clearing up operations would be wrapped up within hours.

"Dozens of IS fighters were killed and we evacuated more than 50 families from inside Al-Bab," Abu Jaafar said.

Turkey sent troops into Syria in August last year in an operation it said targeted not only IS but also US-backed Kurdish fighters whom it regards as terrorists.

The battle for Al-Bab has been the bloodiest of the campaign with at least 69 Turkish soldiers killed there.

The town was also seen as a prize by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, who had advanced to just 1.5 kilometers (one mile) from Al-Bab in recent weeks.

"Al-Bab is important, insofar as its taking from IS will deprive the group of a tax base and an area where it was able to congregate and plot attacks against Syrians and the West," said Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the US-based Atlantic Council.

"For Turkey, the mission, as was defined back in 2016, is now complete: Turkish forces have forced IS from the border and cut the overland route between the two Kurdish cantons" in northern Syria, he said.

Syria's Kurds have managed autonomous administrations in swathes of the country's north since 2012, and Al-Bab falls between the "cantons" of Kobane and Afrin.

"However, Turkey will now have to grapple with the questions of prolonged occupation of a foreign country and help to oversee the transition to civilian rule, a tall task for any foreign military," Stein added.

More than 310,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011 with protests against Assad that spiralled into all-out war.

Syrian regime forces have executed the Syrian pediatrician Mahmoud Satu after he was indicted for treating and feeding the children of Aleppo when its eastern districts were controlled by the opposition, the Jordanian Assabeel newspaper reported yesterday.

Citing the London-based news website Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Assabeel said that local sources in Aleppo said that Satu and another Syrian resident called Ahmed Assad were executed two months after they were arrested.

According to the sources, the two men were executed in the main square of the Al-Sukarri neighborhood in Aleppo, the area where he and his family had lived.

Sources close to Satu told a Syrian news site El-Dorar that he was arrested on 11 December 2016, when the regime raided the Al-Salihin neighborhood in Aleppo. The Syrian news site also said that the pediatrician and his family were captured when they were trying to leave Aleppo with the other residents.

Satu worked in the city of Aleppo in field hospitals. He was reported as having refused to leave Aleppo along with his family, but they were arrested and the doctor was executed over “treating and feeding the children of terrorists.”

According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Satu wrote on his Facebook page before he was arrested: “What is going on in Aleppo is heart-breaking and a savage and barbaric act which is not being done except by a dog dealing with pigs. He [Al-Assad] forgets that God is watching.”

The Syrian regime and its Iran-backed Shia jihadist allies, backed by Russian airpower, gained control of Aleppo after three months of fierce ground attacks and airstrikes. Hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded as homes, schools and hospitals were targeted.

MUNICH - An exiled advocate for China's ethnic Uighur minority said Monday that some of the group were fighting and dying in Syria -- including for Islamic State (IS) -- though she claimed they had been duped into doing so.

Rebiya Kadeer, who heads the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), said that among the thousands of Uighurs who have fled to Southeast Asia, Turkey and elsewhere in recent years, a small number have ended up in the war-torn Middle Eastern country and have joined militant groups.

"Some Uighurs... died after Russian airplanes bombed them, they were killed in Syria," she said at a press conference during a visit to Japan.

Russia's militarily backs the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 and has left more than 300,000 people dead. Numerous groups, including IS, are fighting for control of the country.

The mostly Muslim Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language and number some 10 million, are native to the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang bordering Central Asia and have long complained of religious and cultural discrimination.

China has frequently warned that radical forces from outside have inspired terror attacks in Xinjiang as well as in other regions of the country and has launched a harsh crackdown.

It says among Uighurs who have fled are some seeking to train with extremists in Syria to eventually return and fight for independence in Xinjiang.

In 2015, China's security ministry said more than 100 Uighurs that were repatriated by Thailand had been on their way to Turkey, Syria or Iraq "to join jihad".

Once a wealthy and prominent businesswoman, Kadeer, now 70, fell out with the Chinese government and was jailed before her 2005 release into exile in the United States where she serves as president of the WUC.

She said Uighurs who end up in Syria are vulnerable and prone to being "brainwashed" into joining the fighting there, but still denounced them.

"We think they are just like criminal groups in our society," she said.

The WUC describes itself as a "peaceful opposition movement against Chinese occupation of East Turkestan" -- their name for Xinjiang.

It says it promotes "human rights, religious freedom, and democracy" for Uighurs and advocates "peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine their political future".

But China has blamed the WUC, as well as the shadowy East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), of radicalizing Uighurs and fomenting violence and independence.

Overseas experts, however, have expressed skepticism, with some accusing China of exaggerating the Uighur threat to justify a tough security regime in resource-rich Xinjiang.

Human Rights groups argue that harsh police tactics and government campaigns against Muslim religious practices, such as the wearing of veils, have fueled Uighur violence.

China says it has boosted economic development in Xinjiang and upholds minority and religious rights for all of the country's 56 ethnic groups.

As many as 13,000 people were hanged in five years at a notorious Syrian government prison near Damascus, Amnesty International said Tuesday, accusing the regime of a "policy of extermination."

Titled "Human Slaughterhouse: Mass hanging and extermination at Saydnaya prison," Amnesty's damning report is based on interviews with 84 witnesses, including guards, detainees, and judges.

It found that at least once a week between 2011 and 2015, groups of up to 50 people were taken out of their prison cells for arbitrary trials, beaten, then hanged "in the middle of the night and in total secrecy."

"Throughout this process, they remain blindfolded. They do not know when or how they will die until the noose was placed around their necks," the rights group wrote.

Most of the victims were civilians believed to be opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

"They kept them (hanging) there for 10 to 15 minutes," a former judge who witnessed the executions said.

"For the young ones, their weight wouldn't kill them. The officers' assistants would pull them down and break their necks," he said.

Amnesty said the practices amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, but were likely still taking place.

Thousands of prisoners are held in the military-run Saydnaya prison, one of the country's largest detention centers located 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Damascus.

Amnesty accused the Syrian government of carrying out a "policy of extermination" there by repeatedly torturing detainees and withholding food, water, and medical care.

Prisoners were raped or forced to rape each other, and guards would feed detainees by tossing meals onto the cell floor, which was often covered in dirt and blood.

'Hidden, monstrous campaign'

A twisted set of "special rules" governed the facility: detainees were not allowed to speak and must assume certain positions when guards enter their cells.

"Every day there would be two or three dead people in our wing... I remember the guard would ask how many we had. He would say, 'Room number one – how many? Room number two – how many?' and on and on," said Nader, a former detainee whose name has been changed.

After one fierce day of beating, Nader said, 13 people died in a single wing of the prison.

One former military officer said he could hear "gurgling" as people were hanged in an execution room below.

"If you put your ears on the floor, you could hear the sound of a kind of gurgling," said Hamid, who was arrested in 2011.

"We were sleeping on top of the sound of people choking to death. This was normal for me then," he told Amnesty.

The group has previously said that more than 17,700 people were estimated to have died in government custody across Syria since the country's conflict erupted in March 2011.

The figure of 13,000 deaths in a single prison, therefore, is a marked increase.

"The horrors depicted in this report reveal a hidden, monstrous campaign, authorized at the highest levels of the Syrian government, aimed at crushing any form of dissent within the Syrian population," said Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty's Beirut office.

"The cold-blooded killing of thousands of defenseless prisoners, along with the carefully crafted and systematic programs of psychological and physical torture that are in place inside Saydnaya Prison cannot be allowed to continue," she said.

A probe by the United Nations last year accused Assad's government of a policy of "extermination" in its jails.

More than 310,000 people have been killed and millions have fled their homes since the conflict began with anti-Assad protests.

BERLIN (AP) — Migrants navigating a new language, unfamiliar cultural conventions and Germany's multitude of rules and regulations are finding help online in their adoptive country courtesy of one of their own.

The website arabalmanya.com — which translates to "Arabs in Germany" — was founded a year ago by Syrian IT expert Talal Mando. The site contains a range of information, including news about Germany, feature stories explaining German culture and crucial job offers for newcomers.

"No one came to Germany to sit around," Mando, who was part of the flood of 890,000 migrants who came to Germany in 2015, said of the site's success. "The people want to work and learn new things." The idea for the site came to Mando shortly after the soft-spoken 28-year-old arrived in Germany and started looking for guidance about how to apply for asylum, learn German, and find work.

He quickly realized that most written information was available only in German or English — not a problem for him as a fluent English speaker, but a major barrier for many fellow Syrians and other migrants who spoke only Arabic.

"That's when I got this idea to make a website for Arab people that are in Germany," Mando said in the living room of his Berlin apartment, which doubles as headquarters for the free website. Since the website's launch in December 2015, it has received more than 1.1 million visits and more than 4 million page clicks, nearly all from users inside Germany, according to Google analytics.

Many German organizations have reached out to help migrants get settled and some television networks offer Arabic language programming. Mando said he thinks arabalmanya.com has resonated particularly well with newly arrived Syrians because he and others working on the site have shared their experience.

He now has five people writing for the website, all Syrian migrants working for free after a small startup grant from a local organization ran out. Mando, who works as a freelance web designer, estimates he has put about 5,500 euros ($5,800) of his own money into the project.

The volunteer staff has written more than 1,400 posts, many of them job listings they've translated into Arabic. They also answer about 50 emails a day seeking advice on where to find a doctor, where to learn German, how to register for school, and what documents to bring and clothing to wear to job interviews.

"I do it because people need it. It's that simple," he said. "People need information and jobs here in Germany, and we provide it."

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago, submitting to an initial round of security screenings. His dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump issued an indefinite ban on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan said Saturday that he learned of the decision from TV news the night before. "When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished," said Sawan, 40.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in the Jordanian capital of Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban. "We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision," said refugee Mayada Sheik, 37. "We are not going out to harm people of other countries."

In an executive order Friday, Trump suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S. for four months and banned the entry of Syrian refugees indefinitely, pending a security review of the admissions program. In a third step, he issued a 90-day ban on all entry to the U.S. from countries with terrorism concerns, including Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Close to 5 million Syrians have fled their homeland since the conflict there erupted in 2011. Millions more are displaced within Syria. Most refugees have settled in overburdened neighboring countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey where the struggle for survival has become increasingly difficult. Savings have run out, jobs are scarce and poorly paid, while refugee children learn in crowded classrooms and have very limited access to higher education.

Many refugees say their first choice is to return home as soon as possible. But with the civil war dragging on, that's not an option and refugees increasingly pursue resettlement to the West because of tough conditions in regional host countries.

International aid agencies harshly criticized Trump's restrictions imposed on refugees. The International Rescue Committee said the suspension of the refugee resettlement program was a "harmful and hasty" decision. "America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope," said IRC President David Miliband.

The group said the U.S. vetting process for refugees is already robust — involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by 12 to 15 government agencies. Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Trump's decision hurts innocents fleeing extremist violence in Syria.

"It will not make America safer," Egeland told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Norway. "It will make America smaller and meaner. It's a really sad rupture of a long and proud American bi-partisan tradition that America would be there for those fleeing from terror and for the weak and the vulnerable in the world, which are the refugees."

The NRC is a leading refugee aid agency, assisting more than 1 million Syrians.

Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro urged Venezuela's Supreme Court early Saturday to review a decision stripping congress of its last powers, a ruling that set off a storm of criticism from the opposition and foreign governments.

The announcement came just hours before the opposition hoped to mount big protests against the socialist government, spurred by anger over the ruling. In an address early after a Friday night meeting presided over by Maduro, the National Security Council announced it was supporting a review by the court "with the goal of maintaining institutional stability."

"April is starting on a good step," Maduro said jubilantly surrounded by a dozen officials after the emergency meeting. "Constitutional victory!" Opposition leaders were quick to condemn the announcement as a ploy that did little to alleviate the crisis.

"Let's be absolutely clear," said Freddy Guevara, first vice president of the National Assembly. "A revision of a decision that leaves everything like before doesn't resolve a coup." The three-hour meeting capped an extraordinary day in which Venezuela's chief prosecutor and long-time loyalist of the socialist government broke with the Maduro administration and denounced the court ruling. Luisa Ortega Diaz said it was her "unavoidable historical duty" as the nation's top judicial authority to decry the ruling against the opposition-controlled National Assembly as a "rupture" of the constitutional order.

"We call for reflection so that the democratic path can be retaken," she said to the loud applause of aides around her. Maduro convoked the National Security Council seeking to calm the political uproar, though at least one key member refused to attend. About a dozen officials were present at the session, but among those notably absent was congress president Julio Borges, who said the meeting was no more than a circus act created for a convenient photo opportunity by the same person the opposition blames for the country's troubles.

"In Venezuela the only dialogue possible is the vote," Borges said. Maduro, dressed in black and waving a small blue book containing the Venezuelan constitution early in the televised meeting, likened the international condemnation of this week's Supreme Court decision to a "political lynching."

On Friday, troops from the National Guard fired buckshot and swung batons at students protesting in front of the Supreme Court. A few people were arrested and some journalists covering the demonstration had their cameras taken. A few small protests popped up elsewhere in the capital.

Larger demonstrations were expected Saturday in what opposition leaders hoped would be a big turnout to denounce Maduro and call for elections. "We all have to get out — for the dignity of our country, the dignity of our children and the dignity of Venezuela," Borges said in urging Venezuelans to join in protests Saturday.

The Supreme Court ruled late Wednesday that until lawmakers abided by previous rulings that nullified all legislation passed by congress, the high court could assume the constitutionally assigned powers of the National Assembly, which has been controlled by the opposition since it won a landslide victory in elections in late 2015.

Friday brought a second day of condemnations of the ruling by the United States and governments across Latin America. The head of the Organization of American States likened the decision to a "self-inflicted coup" by the leftist Maduro, and the United Nations' top human rights official urged the high court to reverse its decision.

The OAS announced that it would hold an emergency meeting at its Washington headquarters Monday to discuss the situation in Venezuela. Opposition leaders, long-marginalized during the past 17 years of socialist rule, called on other public officials to follow Ortega Diaz's example in repudiating the court's ruling. Some urged the military, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, to defend the constitution drafted by late President Hugo Chavez.

"You have a new opportunity to show the country and international community if you are with the dictatorship or want your children and grandchildren to grow and live in a country where there's democracy and liberty," said David Smolansky, a Caracas area mayor.

The normally ever-present Maduro was conspicuously silent during much of the two days of turmoil, but then he went on state TV to argue that Venezuela's institutions are operating normally. Alluding to criticism of the court's ruling, he said it is the government's "right-wing, fascist" opponents who are attempting to break the constitutional order, but said his foes would be left with "their cold champagne, uncorked."

Still, Maduro also called for renewed dialogue between the government and the opposition, saying that is the only path to resolving Venezuela's political crisis. "I'm ready with whoever is willing," he said.

Colombia, Chile and Peru withdrew their ambassadors over the ruling. "This clearly destroys the most important pillar of any democracy, which is popular representation," Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said.

The South American trade bloc Mercosur, which suspended Venezuela in December, called an emergency meeting for Saturday in Argentina. OAS will hold a special session Monday, Secretary General Luis Almagro said. Its two other meetings this past week ended with 20 governments led by the U.S. and Mexico voicing deep concern but no concrete actions to hold Maduro accountable.

Maduro's government says the Supreme Court ruling isn't meant to supplant congress but rather to guarantee the rule of law as long as legislators obstruct efforts to adopt a budget and make decisions on Venezuela's slumping economy, which is beset with triple-digit inflation and food shortages.

"It's untrue that a coup has taken place in Venezuela," the government said in a statement. "On the contrary, the institutions have taken corrective legal action to stop the distractive, coup-like actions of an opposition that has declared itself openly in contempt of the decisions made by the republic's top court."

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poles, who have settled in large numbers in Britain in recent years, expressed confusion and apprehension as Britain formally triggered the process to leave the European Union. They rue being cut off from Europe's most attractive job market, while some even fear that weakened European unity leaves them more vulnerable to a belligerent Russia.

"It makes me very sad," said Anna Koziolek, 51, a Warsaw airport employee who traveled to Britain to visit friends on Wednesday, the day that Britain officially launched the exit process. Brexit means "a closed path to a better life," she said before boarding. "It will be harder to travel to work there. Everything will be harder. Finding work will be harder. What we earn here is not enough for a decent life. We need to work abroad."

Seeing her off at the airport was her husband, Adam Koziolek, 53, who also worries that Poland "will be poorer" because the EU will lose the financial support of a rich Western contributor. Those EU subsidies have fueled dramatic economic development in Poland in recent years.

To be sure, some people in the proud Central European nation sympathize with Britain's decision to restore greater national sovereignty, a priority for Poland's own nationalist government. But it appears that most Poles have little to celebrate. After decades behind the Iron Curtain, they eagerly seized the chance to emigrate for work or study when they joined the bloc in 2004. No country drew more Poles than the U.K., which beckoned with jobs aplenty and much higher wages than most could ever dream of earning at home. Young Poles often speak English and also adapt quickly to life in Britain.

Experts estimate that there are anywhere from 850,000 to somewhere over 1 million Poles living in Britain — people who have built families, homes and new lives and feel little desire to return home. Many of their relatives back in Poland have also come to depend on financial help sent from abroad.

"I think that current levels of uncertainty and anxiety connected to this are very high, much higher than even the biggest pessimists could have expected," said Jacek Kucharczyk, the director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a think tank in Warsaw. "This is related to the fact that the British government treats EU citizens, including Poles, as a bargaining card in the negotiations with the EU."

Prime Minister Theresa May rebuffed pressures in Britain to guarantee before negotiations that all EU citizens could remain. Until those negotiations are concluded — the target is 2019 — no doors will be closed to citizens of other EU countries. But after that?

Amid the uncertainty, officials from De Montefort University in Leicester were in Warsaw on Wednesday to reassure upcoming Polish students that the university will continue to welcome them despite Brexit, making available the same loans, grants and fee levels as before.

"I have basically been reassuring them that our country is still open for business," the university's vice-chancellor, Dominic Shellard, told The Associated Press after delivering that message to dozens of young Poles who will begin attending the school in the fall.

Students interviewed by the AP said that message of openness made them feel welcome — in contrast to the punch in the gut they felt when Britain voted last year to leave the EU. "Many of our classmates came to school crying," said Malgorzata Swiderska, an 18-year-old from Lodz, recalling that day in late June. She said they feared they would never be able to study in Britain and felt "unwanted."

Another student, Wojciech Choinski, also 18 and from Lodz, said the prospect of Brexit actually gave him greater impetus to study there. "This thought at the back of my head — that this opportunity can be lost in two years' time — it pushed me toward my goals to study in the U.K., to visit this country that I've always wanted to visit," Choinski said. "That just really gave me the kick to go there."

LONDON (AP) — Britain filed for divorce from the European Union on Wednesday, with fond words and promises of friendship that could not disguise the historic nature of the schism — or the years of argument and hard-nosed bargaining ahead as the U.K. leaves the embrace of the bloc for an uncertain future as "global Britain."

Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the two-year divorce process in a six-page letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk, vowing that Britain will maintain a "deep and special partnership" with its neighbors in the bloc. In response, Tusk told Britain: "We already miss you."

May's invocation of Article 50 of the EU's key treaty sets the clock ticking on two years of negotiations until Britain becomes the first major nation to leave the union — as Big Ben bongs midnight on March 29, 2019.

The U.K. joined what was then called the European Economic Community in 1973. Its departure could not come at a worse time for the EU, which has grown from six founding members six decades ago to a largely borderless span of 28 nations and a half billion people. Nationalist and populist parties are on the march across the continent in revolt against the bloc's mission of "ever-closer union." And in Washington, President Donald Trump has derided the EU, NATO and other pillars of Western order built up since World War II.

"This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back," May told lawmakers in the House of Commons, moments after her letter was hand-delivered to Tusk in Brussels by Britain's ambassador to the EU, Tim Barrow.

In the letter, May said the two sides should "engage with one another constructively and respectfully, in a spirit of sincere cooperation." But for all the warmth, the next two years will be a tough test of the notion that divorcees can remain good friends.

May is under pressure from her Conservative Party and Britain's largely Euroskeptic press not to concede too much in exchange for a good trade deal with the EU. For their part, the other 27 members of the bloc will need to stick together and stand firm as they ride out the biggest threat in the union's history.

Brexit has been hailed by populists across Europe — including French far-right leader Marine Le Pen — who hope the U.K. is only the first in a series of departures. EU leaders are determined to stop that happening.

"The European Union is a historically unique success story," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin. "It remains one even after Britain's withdrawal. We will take care of that." Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent in favor of leaving the bloc in a referendum nine months ago, and they remain deeply divided over Brexit.

In the pro-Brexit heartland of Dover on England's south coast — whose white cliffs face toward France — some were jubilant as May pulled the trigger. "I'm a local church minister, and I said to my wife, 'All I want to do before I die is see my country free from the shackles of Europe,'" said 70-year-old Mike Piper, buying a copy of the Sun tabloid with the front-page headline "Dover and Out."

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who campaigned for years to take Brexit from a fringe cause to a reality, said Britain had passed "the point of no return." "I can still, to be honest with you, scarcely believe today has come," he said.

But many young Britons who have grown up in the EU and voted overwhelmingly for Britain to remain a member worry about how much they could lose. "I'm really anxious about it. It was a bad idea," said Elaine Morrison, an 18-year-old who was traveling to Barcelona with friends. "I like traveling to other countries And it will be a trouble now. The pound is weaker so it will cost more to buy the euros, and the costs of travel will be more expensive. And there will be red tape."

People in London's financial district, the City, are anxious about the uncertainty. "No one knows how this is going to go," said City worker Nicola Gibson. "It's a gamble, it's a risk." May's six-page letter to Tusk was conciliatory, stressing that Britons want to remain "committed partners and allies to our friends across the continent."

But there was a hint of steel in May's assertion that without a good deal, "our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened." That could be seen by some in Europe as a threat to withdraw British security cooperation if the U.K. does not get its way.

European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt responded diplomatically: "I cannot, as a gentleman, even imagine that a lady as Mrs. May is using blackmail, is thinking of blackmail." Tusk said he will respond by Friday with draft negotiating guidelines for the remaining 27 member states to consider. They'll meet April 29 to finalize their platform. Talks between the EU's chief negotiator, French diplomat Michel Barnier, and his British counterpart, Brexit Secretary David Davis, are likely to start in the second half of May.

As in many divorces, the first area of conflict is likely to be money. The EU wants Britain to pay a bill of as much as 50 billion euros ($63 billion) to cover pension liabilities for EU staff and other commitments the U.K. has agreed to.

Britain acknowledges it will have to pay something, but is sure to quibble over the size of the tab. May did not indicate Wednesday how much Britain would be willing to pay, saying only that it will no longer pay "significant sums of money on an annual basis" to the EU.

But, May added: "We're a law-abiding nation. We will meet obligations that we have." Negotiations will also soon hit a major contraction: Britain wants to strike "a bold and ambitious free trade agreement" with the bloc of some 500 million people, but says it will restore control of immigration, ending the right of EU citizens to live and work in Britain. The EU says Britain can't have full access to the single market if it doesn't accept free movement, one of the bloc's key principles.

Both Britain and the EU say a top priority will be guaranteeing the rights of 3 million EU citizens living in Britain, and 1 million Britons living elsewhere in the bloc. In her letter, May said "we should aim to strike an early agreement about their rights" — but for now they remain in limbo.

The two sides also appear to disagree on how the talks will unfold. EU officials say the divorce terms must be settled before negotiators can turn to the U.K.'s future relationship with the bloc, while Britain wants the two things discussed simultaneously.

Britain wants to seal a new trade deal within two years, but Verhofstadt told The Associated Press there would have to be a further transition period of "no more than three years to discuss, to detail the content of this future."

A final deal must be approved by both the British and European parliaments — and Verhofstadt said EU lawmakers "will use our veto power" if they do not like the outcome. Brexit has profound implications for Britain's economy, society and even unity. The divisive decision has given new impetus to the drive for Scottish independence and shaken the foundations of Northern Ireland's peace settlement. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who says the Brexit vote means Scotland should get a referendum on independence, accused May of making "a reckless gamble."

But anti-EU politicians saluted Wednesday as the day Britain regained its sovereignty from Brussels bureaucrats. "If you've been locked inside a dark and cramped dungeon and you step out into sunlight, it's going to be a bit intimidating," pro-Brexit lawmaker Douglas Carswell said. "We as a country have got to rediscover the art of self-governance."

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of supporters of arrested former President Park Geun-hye were expected to gather in South Korea's capital on Saturday to call for her release. Seoul police planned to deploy more than 10,000 officers to monitor the rally near City Hall amid concerns of clashes. Opponents and supporters of Park have divided the streets of Seoul in recent months with passionate rallies.

Park was jailed Friday over allegations that she colluded with a confidante to extort money from businesses, take bribes and allow the friend to unlawfully interfere with state affairs. Dozens of her supporters rallied outside the detention center Friday, some of them crying and bowing toward the facility while vowing to "protect" her.

Three people died amid violent clashes between Park's supporters and police on March 10 after the Constitutional Court decided to remove her from office. Park's presidential powers were suspended after lawmakers impeached her in December, following weeks of massive demonstrations by millions of people calling for her ouster.